Nicolas Cage contains multitudes. He’s an Oscar winner who is just as likely to start in a Left Behind reboot as he is to play a version of Peter Parker in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. He’s a chameleon that can naturally fit into the vision of filmmakers as varied as David Lynch, Werner Herzog, John Woo, Spike Jonze, or the Coen brothers. Last year alone, Cage starred in the absurdist action-horror films Prisoners of the Ghostland and Willy’s Wonderland, hosted the Netflix series History of Swear Words, and gave one of his most tender and moving performances with Pig. Cage is such an icon at this point, it seems like the only role we haven’t seen him take on is himself.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent—however—rectifies that, casting Cage as “Nick Cage,” whose career isn’t what he wants it to be, awkwardly pitching David Gordon Green after a lunch meeting and strongly considering retiring. Cage is in a considerable amount of debt, his ex-wife Olivia (Sharon Horgan) has had enough of his egotistical behavior, and his daughter Addy (Lily Sheen) is sick of her father trying to create her in his image. If all that’s not bad enough, Cage is frequently visited by what is essentially the Ghost of Cage Past, a Wild at Heart-aged version of himself who seems to push hard for Cage to indulge his Cage-iness.
At the end of his rope and ready to give up, Cage accepts a $1 million offer to appear at the birthday party of the wealthy superfan and aspiring screenwriter, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal). Soon after arriving in Spain for Javi’s party, Cage is intercepted by a pair of CIA agents (Tiffany Haddish and Ike Barinholtz), who tell Cage that Javi is the head of a cartel that has kidnapped a presidential candidate’s daughter. With Cage as their way in, the actor indulges Javi’s filmmaking dreams in order to try and find the kidnapped girl.
It’s clear that director/co-writer Tom Gormican and co-writer Kevin Etten are also Cage superfans—as is mostly seen through the eyes of Javi. Through Javi, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent can praise Cage’s performance in Guarding Tess, proclaim Mandy a modern masterpiece, or stare in awe at Cage’s golden guns in Face/Off. However, the attempts at meta-comedy towards Cage’s career are fairly tame, mostly relegated to name-dropping, quick references, or characters seeing Cage and going, “holy shit, it’s Nicolas Cage.” Despite Unbearable Weight seeming like the perfect opportunity to embrace self-referential humor and the inherent over-the-top nature of Cage, Gormican and Etten rarely go as far with this concept as they probably should.
Similarly, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and its spy-story-meets-Hollywood-action-star idea only works in bits and pieces. Throughout Unbearable Weight, Cage and Javi are working through their idea for a script, and it seems scattered, full of ideas that maybe don’t come together as well as they should. The same could be said of The Unbearable Weight—a film that has plenty of ideas, but never quite knows how to execute them as effectively as possible. For example, in an attempt to gain inspiration, Cage and Javi take LSD together. What could’ve been an opportunity to go all-in with the insanity of this concept instead becomes little more than another hangout sequence for these two new friends. This scene is emblematic of Unbearable Weight’s biggest flaw: the pieces are there, they’re just not used as well as they should be.
But as one would expect, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent succeeds because of the massive talent at the center of the film. Cage is clearly having a ball reveling in his meme-ability and the grand scope of his career. Cage not only has to reckon with his past choices as an actor, but also with his weaknesses in his personal life. When talking to his agent (played by Neil Patrick Harris), Cage talks about how he’s coming back, but “not that we went anywhere.” We’ve seen Cage’s career as it ebbs and flows, and the fact that even though he’s been working all the time, he hasn’t exactly had the career that he once did. Cage has explored his more questionable work in interviews lately, and he tackles the ups and downs of his career here with frankness and honesty. But it’s his realization that he could’ve been a better father and husband that really makes this Cage performance work, as he’s a man who still has great aspirations as an actor, but has to acknowledge that his goals have an effect on those he loves most.
While The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent is clearly a vehicle and celebration of Cage, it’s Pascal who ends up stealing the show here. His wide-eyed joy at spending time with Cage is unbelievably charming, and the friendship that arises between Javi and Cage is immensely sweet and becomes the gigantic heart of this film. Pascal and Cage together make a lovely dynamic that elevates this beyond a surface-level action film centered on Cage’s life and career, and Pascal finally gets a perfect project to show off his impressive talents as a comedic actor.
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent works far better as a buddy comedy than as a satire of Cage and his previous films. But Cage and Pascal together make an extremely delightful combo, one that holds Unbearable Weight afloat even when the plot and parody can become a bit perfunctory. But The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent—even when it doesn’t entirely work—shows the dedication and greatness of Cage, the impressive breadth of his career, and proves that Cage is, indeed, back. Not that he went anywhere.
Rating: B-
The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent comes to theaters on April 22.